Whoop. Whoop. Whoopie Pie!

I just got back from spending the evening at the theater with my family. We're fancy like that. We saw a local production of Legally Blonde: The Musical. I bet you didn't know this about me, but Legally Blonde is my favorite movie of all time. I know 90% of the words. Sweet Home Alabama comes in at a close second. I love Reese. I love Elle. I want to be gorgeous and smart just like her.

Anyway, the point is that I'm still in Atlanta where I've been doing a whole lot of nothing. And I'm loving every second of it.

The other day my mom was perusing TJMaxx (or Winner's if you're Canadian) when she stumbled on this little gem. For $14 she scored a Babycake's Whoopie Pie maker. They're usually around $30 so that is quite the deal.

I'm not sure if whoopie pies are a regional thing or not, but I've ran into a handful of Southerners that don't seem to know what they are. In New England whoopie pies are in every corner store, sitting right next to the cash register. They must be popular in Iowa too because my Grandmother sent me a recipe from the newspaper last summer.

Either way, a whoopie pie is essentially two round pieces of a dense cake with a cream or frosting in between. They come in a million different flavor combos and making them from scratch is an art. If your mom makes a good whoopie pie then you get bragging rights and are the envy of every kid at school.

This machine is great because it lets you cheat. Its basically like a waffle iron, but with little round indents that cook the perfect mini whoopie pie in less than three minutes.

To begin the cheating, we used a box cake mix. Here's the secret: cut down the water by half. That makes the cake dense.

Then we used a tablespoon to measure out the perfect amount for our mini pies. 

After a bit of experimenting we decided that cooking the cakes for 2 minutes and 45 seconds was perfect. 

The Babycakes machine makes 12 rounds at a time, which will give you enough for six whoopie pies. The whole bowl of cake batter was enough to make about 24 mini whoopie pies.

For frosting, we decided a peanut butter frosting would compliment the chocolate pie perfectly. If you don't have a peanut butter frosting in your arsenal, be sure to add this:

Peanut Butter Frosting: With a mixer, blend 1 cup peanut butter, 7 tbsp butter, 1 tsp vanilla. Add in 1 cup of powdered sugar and then 1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream. Beat well.

Where was I? Oh yes. Mini whoopie pies.

Slap a scoop of frosting on a pie and then smush it down with another pie.

Done!

Wanna know another secret? Throw them in the freezer and eat them cold. 

Babycakes also make a donut maker and a cake pop maker. I haven't tried either, but the whoopie pie maker definitely gets my approval. 

Imagine the baking possibilities!

Psst. Have a baker in your life? Put this on your Christmas shopping list now. It's the kind of thing that will make a perfect present but you'll totally forget about by the time the holidays roll around.